A merchant location may utilize mobile merchant devices to provide transaction processing with customers at the merchant location, for example, using tablet computers and handheld computing devices. These mobile merchant devices allow merchant employees to more easily process transactions when on the move between customers or when the customers may be mobile throughout the merchant location. These mobile merchant devices may require associated terminals to allow for entry of payment instrument information by a customer, such as a magnetic card reader and/or EMV card reader (e.g., a smart card having an embedded integrated chip according to the EMV standard or other technical standard). However, where these terminals may be wireless so that they may be handed over to a customer for the customer to enter a payment instrument and associated authentication (e.g., password, personal identification number (PIN), and/or signature), the terminals may be on and lose power. Thus, setup time between newly charged terminals may be cumbersome to employees to establish the wireless connection between the mobile merchant device and a new terminal. Moreover, if a terminal is misplaced and a new one quickly needed, changing connections between terminals may add additional time to transaction processing and cause customer dissatisfaction.
Embodiments of the present disclosure and their advantages are best understood by referring to the detailed description that follows. It should be appreciated that like reference numerals are used to identify like elements illustrated in one or more of the figures, wherein showings therein are for purposes of illustrating embodiments of the present disclosure and not for purposes of limiting the same.